Friday, July 14, 2006

I love these needles!

Yesterday, I started the Trelllis Scarf from the Spring 2006 Interweave Knits in my purple cashmere. First of all, I don't think the yarn will overpower the lace or vice versa. The purples are very muted with no dramatic color changes, so I think it will work out very well. Unfortunately, it's cloudy today and though I tried, I couldn't get a decent picture, so that will have to wait.

As for the needles, I'm using the size 5 tips. (When I refer to the tips, I am referring to the silver needle part itself and the points refer to the actual end of the needle.) The needles themselves are nice and slick and are nice and long which I like as some circular needle tips are too short and make my hands cramp. The points are much sharper than Addis (which was why I'm not an Addi fan) and have a fairly long taper. The needle points slid very easily into the Trellis Scarf's 7 to 5 stitch which means you slip the needle through seven stitches and k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, making five stitches from the original seven. That wasn't difficult at all. The only problem I had with the join was my own fault for not tightening it quite enough and I got a stitch caught in between, but I fixed that and the joins are actually incredibly smooth. Just make sure you tighten enough. One thing I've always hated about my Clover Bamboos was having to force the stitches over the join. None of that with these. I can just slide the stitches easily over. The cables themselves (besides being purple, of course) are wonderful. I don't know how they'll hold up to abuse, but they do join easily to the needles and they are not kinked at all from being bagged. Absolutely no steaming required.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase and I will be keeping them. I will most likely purchase the 0-3 sizes. I highly recommend trying them.